Firefox won't open profiles on my server
I keep three profiles on my Network Attached Server (ReadyNAS Ultra 4), where they get backed up every night. Firefox v32 opens fine on my older Ubuntu 12.04LTS box and my even older WinXP box.
My newer Ubuntu 14.04LTS machine came with Firefox v35 (if I recall correctly). It wouldn't open my profiles. I upgraded to v37. It still will not open any of the three profiles on the server. FF will start only if I use a locally-stored profile. I can open them on a VMWare virtual WindowsXP machine on this box (again, v32), but not natively in Ubuntu. I get the message:
Firefox cannot use the profile "Private" because it is in use.
I don't know if this is a bug with v35+ or something peculiar about my install of Ubuntu 14.04. Chrome works fine, and I have no other problems with the files on the server. If it were a permissions issue, I don't think it would work on my 12.04 box.
Please help. I'd like to use Firefox again someday.
All Replies (11)
I've called the big guys to help you. Good luck.
FredMcD said
I've called the big guys to help you. Good luck.
Any idea when these "big guys" might respond?
When they can. With a new version, we and they get busy helping out.
I've asked this question a couple of times before over the past year, on a couple of different forums. It's never gotten answered. I really can't believe I'm the only person running Firefox profiles on a server. (Well, I guess I'm not, any more.)
christ1 said
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use
I've tried all that before (and I just did again). I deleted the profile name, re-created it, rebooted, tried to open it and got the same error. I checked the profiles.ini file; everything is okay. I deleted the existing .parentlock file (although I've heard that's not used by FF to determine profile in use anymore), and there is no lock file.
As soon as I select my profile and click OK, a .parentlock file is created in the profile directory, and the message recurs.
It's as if it creates the .parentlock file, THEN checks to see if that file is there, then generates the error message when it finds it. I'm not suggesting that's what's happening, but that is the appearance.
Also, I tried creating a brand-new profile on the server, rather than using my existing profiles. Same thing.
Any chance Mozilla will ever address this?
Did you check the permissions to make sure that nothing is wrong?
Does Firefox otherwise has a problem with accessing this server if you use a local profile?
It's not permissions: FF v32 opens the profiles just fine. And yes, FF v37 can open HTML files on the server with no issues.